Mr. Snowden was never supposed to have access to this document -- nor many of the others he obtained. But as with much of his trove of documents, he obtained the kind of whistleblower information that was far too explosive for even a privileged employee of his clearance, by using digital espionage to escalate his privileges even higher.

A former intelligence official quoted by NBC News described Mr. Snowden, stating:

Every day, they are learning how brilliant [Snowden] was. This is why you don’t hire brilliant people for jobs like this. You hire smart people. Brilliant people get you in trouble. The damage, on a scale of 1 to 10, is a 12.

Edward Snowden was "too smart" to hire, says one former intelligence official. When he caught wind of massive gov't spying and corruption he blew the whistle in a responsible way when a "dumber" employee might have stayed quiet, ignorant, and obedient . [Image Source: AP]

If that sounds a little bit like a mob mindset, you might not be that far off, when you consider the numbers from this latest document.

While the document has plenty of interesting revelations, perhaps the most revealing graphic as to why the NSA and other organizations are so keen on spying on millions of law abiding Americans can be found on page 79 of the "top secret" classified Budget Summary for Fiscal 2013:

[Image Source: The Washington Post]

The graphic above shows that about 18 percent of the intelligence workforce -- or roughly one in five contractors -- is from the private sector ("civilian" workers represent non-military government personnel, i.e. staff at CIA or NSA offices or counterterrorism "Fusion" Centers).

While contractors represent fewer than 20 percent of the workforce, 70 percent of the intelligence budget goes to them, according to a figure from the U.S. Director of National Intelligence Agency (DNI) at a Colorado sponsored by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). While it's possible that this number is a few percentage points more or less today, that rare peek behind the veil is likely still relatively accurate.

Given that these companies were among President Barack Hussein Obama's (D) top donors, giving twice as much to him as his Republican rival, it seems unlikely that the agency chiefs would cut back funding to these "friends of the state".

Barack Hussein Obama is a master of "spying" a payday... it's not suprising he managed to get elected President (twice) and lavished private intelligence contractors with kickbacks.
[Image Source: Reuters]

Given that "generosity", it's possible that the percentage of the President's intelligence budgets that is being funneled to campaign donors-cum-private contractors may be well over 70 percent at present.

But let us assume the 70 percent figure for a second. So that figure indicates 70 cents out of every intelligence dollar goes in a private pocket.

One might assume that under the "free market" these contracts would deliver lowers costs. But in reality it appears they are dramatically higher. With the information from the latest leak (that contractors only comprise ~18 percent of the workforce), it can be estimated that the federal government pays ten times as much of your taxpayer dollars per private sector analyst as they do per government employees.

In other words in America's political system, the much villainized "desk job bureaucrats" (along with a small contingent of members of the military) are actually raking in much less than the private sector firms "competing" for that work.

It's an ironic day when bureaucrats are 10 times cheaper than the closed market alternative championed by corrupt politicians. [Image Source: Matt Groening]

This makes no sense from a capitalist perspective until you realize that this isn't capitalism at all and that the nation has devolved into a system in which both parties unilaterally take from the taxpayers and pay off large contractors, who consistently shower both supposed "sides" of America's two party ruling system with campaign cash.

III. Contracts Awarded For Payouts, Not Product

There's no transparency, and little competition to speak of, because contracts typically go to those who pay, not those who offer the best payout of results. For example Amazon.com, Inc.'s (AMZN) PAC in 2012 paid a roughly 56-74 split (D/R) of campaign cash to members of the House and 37-12 split (D/R) to members of the Senate, according to OpenSecret's numbers from its PAC. Lo and behold in each case money went to whatever party was in control of chamber and could pass spending legislation. According to the site's statistics Amazon claimed $2.5M USD in lobbying expenses in 2012 alone.

Congress is as much in the pocket of the owners of big money intelligence contractors as the President. [Image Source: Wikimedia Commons]

Punch that into your old calculator with the numbers from a 2011 study by researchers Raquel Alexander and Susan Scholz of the University of KansasSchool of Business which estimates that per $1 USD spent on lobbying a company gets back $220 USD, on average in contracts, tax breaks, grants, etc. and you get an estimated that Amazon's $2.5M USD contribution should theoretically earn it a $550M USD payoff.

Bribery pays big dividends in U.S. politics. Given that federal politicians have little legal responsibility to recuse themselves from decisions involving campaign donors and given that the payoff is $220 USD per $1 USD spent lobbying it's a dream investment.
[Image Source: Haberrus]

Likewise, Oracle Corp. (ORCL) -- another top tech industry recipient -- spent so much that even Amazon might blush. It spent $6.7M USD in 2012 alone. And results? Consider that Oracle pocketed most of a $1B USD U.S. Air Force project that last year was deemed a complete failure and whose work was mostly tossed out (don't worry Oracle kept that hard earned taxpayer money). Perhaps that's why Oracle CEO Larry Ellison was so eager to defend the NSA -- an agency who he reportedly helps spy on millions of Americans daily.

IV. Most of the Pork is Pocketed by Big Shareholders, Not Contracting Professionals

So it's been settled that the U.S. government is taxing citizens over $50B USD per year to spy on themselves, and is operating as a closed-market system when it comes to contracting, with any signs of capitalistic life few and far between. But one would hope at least some of that money was going to the employees of defense and electronics industry intelligence contractors.

But this does not appear to be the case. While private sector employees do earn more, they don't earn ten times as much. Associate Consultants at BAH -- a position similar to Mr. Snowden's make an average of $108K USD yearly according to Glass Ceiling (Mr. Snowden reportedly made $122,000 USD/year), while an NSA "analyst" in a similar post reportedly earns around $70K USD. So if private contractors aren't even earning a measly twice as much, where is all this pork going?

Contractor firms' professional employees only make marginally more than their gov't peers, studies show. Most of the pork is stuffed into the pockets of hedge fund owners, the ultimate target of intelligence industry pork. [Image Source: Mother Jones]

The answer is that the money is pocketed as corporate profits, which are distributed to shareholders via programs such as dividends, share buybacks, etc. Of course much of this money goes to America's top 0.01 percent -- the individuals who control the hedge funds, which in turn own much of the corporate IT industry and defense contracting industry's public stock. Essentially the corporations just act as one more layer in the food chain above the paid off politicians who scavenge on taxpayer dollars. At the top of food chain are the hedge fund owners, the great whites of the American budgetary sea.

Thus contracting -- the primary recipient of intelligence dollars -- is not only a corrupt closed-market system with artificially inflated prices -- its a system in which skilled professional at most earn a small cut of these ill-gotten gains. The leech-like construct ultimately funnels the lion's share of defense contracting dollars to a fortunate few, operating as a plutocracy.

V. Small Contractors Show Similar Tendencies

As for smaller contracting firms the same principle applies. Studies show that funding -- much of which passes through earmarks -- is largely received by contractors that donate to the politicians sponsoring the earmark.

More often these small firms -- like EWA GSI -- are private with profits going to their venture capitalist backers -- the same lucky lot that have cornered the big business side of the market via their corporate stock holdings. Why select one route of corruption when you can have two?

The best plutocrats surely have balanced portfolios of small and big contractors alike, all of whom are wooing the best politicians that money can buy.

VI. How Big Intelligence Taught me to Stop Worrying About Bureaucrats and Love the Bomb

A final point worth mentioning is that while intelligence budgets are at record amounts in dollars -- they are not at record amounts when adjusted for inflation. In the late 1980s inflation adjusted budgets peaked at around $71B USD, according to The Washington Post.

But what is different is the product that's being paid for and who is getting paid.

In the 1980s most intelligence dollars went to government employees and their expenses. Intelligence was expensive as it was largely the work of field operations in regions of interest. This required a lot of employees and a lot of logistics spending. Contractors are though to have received a far smaller cut.

Today most intelligence money goes to private contractors. Intelligence today should be far cheaper as most of it's done locally in the U.S. with little in the way of logistics costs.

Today federal spying is low cost and focuses more heavily on U.S. citizens. This all equates to more pork for paid of polticians to push. [Image Source: The People's Cube]

Thus America has unwittingly traded expensive bloated bureaucracy in the Cold War for an even more wasteful closed market plutocractic system in the "9/11 era". And in the process they're getting far less for its money, all while installing systems that could later lead to dangerous violations of citizens' civil liberties.

The bitter irony? We're paying for the weapons that could one day rob us of our Constitutional freedoms. [Image Source: Nation of Change]

You know you're in a nightmare when you're wishing that you could get your slightly-less-overpaid bureaucrats back. But that is where America finds itself. Welcome to the surveillance state.

Innaccessible free healthcare. Speaking against it is pure heresy.Ultra-freaking high taxes.Still waving the Queen's flag.Just as much corruption as everywhere else, but provinces other than Quebec are not looking into it.For that matter, Anglo-Franco hatred that feels like civil war is coming. The separatist premier nearly got shot on election night.Winters are getting shorter and shorter. That's bad for mapple syrup.

You speak as if i was an United-Statian. I'm a Canadian, from french ancestry since 1646, mixed with indian blood. There is no canadian west of the Ottawa river that is more canadian than i am (except for amerindians). You could say I am the true canadian, most of you are invaders.Still hate the Queen and what 25M blokes have made of my country.

-You are correct about the healthcare.-Wrong about taxes - we have far lower corporate rates and no estate tax.-Nobody gives a fart about the Queen and we are not beholden to the UK at all.-Corruption is a problem, especially in dynastic provinces (political parties in power too long) and in our joke senate-Civil war - with wooden spoons maybe? It will happen again far sooner in the USA thanks to the race-baiting marxist freaks in power there.-Maple syrup? good one.

Reclaimer, you are correct about the healthcare scam being perpetrated up here, however we are in a far better economic position than the United States right now. Something that has been completely ignored by our communist media is the fact that the current Conservative government under Stephen Harper has actually cut real dollar spending (I mean actual budget spending has been reduced - not the usual "cut" which means a smaller increase) for the first time since the end of WW2.

Also our corporate tax rates our far lower than the US, and we don't have estate taxes. I never expected to see it in my lifetime, but currently Canada is a far more economically free nation than Obamatopia.

I know the usual USA vs Canada arguments are silly, it's like sibling rivalry between two nations effectively joined at the hip. Canadians love to bash the USA, but when we are mentioned by a notable American or your media, the elitist snobs turn into giggling schoolgirls. I find it hilarious.

Now fix that mess going on down there, and restore the constitution (the single greatest idea in human history), so I can move down there away from this freezing, boring, stifling land of wannabe commies in toques. :)